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IAM & Cybersecurity Events You Don’t Want To Miss In 2018

Gal HelemskiJanuary 28, 2018

These are exciting times to be in the Identity and Access Management (IAM) space. The marketplace opening up to major new opportunities, with new technologies like blockchain, the Internet of Things, and advanced authentication/authorization measures, are making waves in the industry.

The market growth of IAM is also escalating. Cloud-based IAM systems are set to grow by a CAGR of 30.89% to 2023, and Customer-driven IAM (CIAM) is expected to reach $31.75 billion by 2022.

In keeping with this blossoming space, conferences are focusing attention on the identity empowering aspects of IAM alongside cybersecurity and privacy. These conferences are an excellent way to both keep up to date with industry innovation and news and also to network with identity professionals. To help you decide which are the best identity and cybersecurity conferences to visit in 2018 we’ve come up with our own list which we’ve shared with you here:

Gartner run an annual summit which presents the state of the IAM nation. Gartner analysts lead the presentation and look at various aspects of the IAM space, from both a technical and business perspective. The conference offers the option to ‘attend as a team’ which is set up to save your organization money, and to pull in a more rich experience across multiple areas covered in the conference.

Check out this talk as a ‘hot topic’ for 2018:Privacy Pressure: Tame the General Data Protection Regulation Before It Attacks You!

Once RSA was purely about subjects that fell directly under the highly technical cybersecurity arena. Now the show also has a multitude of sessions on not just traditional cybersecurity topics but also IAM. Agenda items for this year's show cover everything from tutorials and training sessions to panels and speaking sl ots by some of the world's experts in cybersecurity and IAM.

InfoSec World puts the emphasis on ‘the business of security’. It brings folks from across the disciplines of business and technology together to work toward better, more secure systems. The show is a mix of expert speakers across domains, hands-on training workshops and an expo showcasing cutting-edge vendors.

This is a lengthy conference taking in several days of hands-on sessions to give you true value for money. The conference is all about bringing together those who are at the top of their game with practitioners, to share information and ideas. The summit covers a wide-range of topics and for identity professionals, this is key to ensuring you have a full suite of knowledge needed to apply security across an identity system.

Speakers are still being firmed up for the 2018 show, but don’t miss:“ICS Threat Intelligence: Moving from the Unknowns to a Defended Landscape”

Identity and security specialist analysts, KuppingerCole, run this regular conference and summit on identity. The show brings together the most experienced and industry renowned identity professionals. The show is a ‘must go to’ event for anyone who works in the identity arena. It offers cutting-edge opinions, as well as hands-on case studies that give an insight into the everyday lives of a practicing identity architects and implementations.

The conference speaker list is still being built, but for many years the infamous Kim Cameron who developed the idea of “The Laws of Identity” has been a keynote speaker.Topics this year that to catch include:

InfoSec Europe is one of the largest security conferences on the planet. The show is hosted by the magazine of the same name. The show is a mix of expo and conference and it works to bring the infosec community together, so lots of networking events are held. The expo side of the show is massive and showcases vendors across the security and identity arena.

The 2018 speakers slots are still open but 2017 keynote speaker was:Jessica Barker, Sociotechnical Lead at Readacted Firm who talked about “Securing the user”

This is a highly focused show covering all that is identity management and big data. The show is biannual and this is its 13th airing. It is a business-driven show with leaders across the IAM and big data space. The program will deep-dive into the whys and wherefores of using identity in a business context.

Speakers are still being firmed up but here are talks we recommend not to miss:

The newly-named Cloud Identity Summit, Identiverse places identity as central to security. This sentiment will resonate with all identity professionals who have witnessed the discipline extending into a much wider, often Cloud-based system, touching all aspects of the enterprise and beyond. The agenda this year is packed full of practical workshops and sessions from world-renowned experts.

Featured Keynote to catch:Ian Glazer of Salesforce and n the Board of industry body, IDPro

Analysts Gartner are the hosts for the Gartner IAM Summit in the USA in 2018. The conference is where identity professionals meet up to have hands-on sessions with analysts, learn about best practices in the industry, and find out about emerging identity and authentication technologies. This year's conference will be focusing on how to craft an IAM strategy in a digital age. Conference speakers are being firmed up now, but some highlights from last year’s conference included two Gartner Analyst One-on-Ones as part of the attendance package.

The Black Hat conference embraces identity and sees it as part of the overall security solution. The conference attracts some of the biggest names in the industry and has a mix of networking, hands-on sessions, panels, and individual high profile speakers. The USA Black Hat conference is still being firmed up, but in 2017 one of the best keynotes was: "Stepping up our Game: Re-focusing the security community on defense and making security work for everyone" byAlex Stamos, CSO of Facebook.

DefCon is THE hacker conference. It is the place to find out about security from the ground up. DefCon is all about getting educated, and as identity pushes the boundaries of security, DefCon will push with it.This year’s show is still being coordinated, but some highlights from last year’s show included: "Hacking Democracy" by Sean Kanuck of Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation.